Esther Adler, author of "Breaking the Chains to Freedom," will speak at Mission Hospital Laguna Beach from 6 to 8 p.m. Jan. 16.
Adler's book details the abuse she says she suffered from a young child to a victim of domestic abuse as a wife, and how she overcame the self-defeating patterns in her life to become psychologically strong.
Adler said she became a caregiver for her mother, a stroke victim, at the age of eight. While she says she resented losing her childhood to care for her mother, she now believes the experience enriched her.